Super League: Warrington Wolves fight back to beat Catalans Dragons 30-22 and boost play-off hopes

Ryan Matterson celebrates after Warrington staged a comeback win

Warrington Wolves recovered from a 16-point deficit to keep their Betfred Super League play-off hopes alive with a laboured 30-22 victory over struggling Catalans Dragons.

The out-of-sorts Wolves, whose recent poor results have been exacerbated by off-field issues, were stunned as the Dragons ran in four tries in the first half-hour at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Three of the French side's tries came from former St Helens winger Tommy Makinson but his absence through injury in the second half proved costly as the Wolves rallied.

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Jake Thewlis crossed twice for the hosts either side of a Sam Stone effort and Josh Thewlis finally made the result certain, ending a run of three successive Warrington defeats, in the closing minutes.

How Catalans gave Wolves a fright before fightback

Jake Thewlis scored a try in each half

Warrington coach Sam Burgess controversially dropped influential full-back Matt Dufty for disciplinary reasons last week, warning the Australian he needed to "fix his behaviour up".

Dufty's name was again missing from the Wolves squad and two other key players in Toby King and Paul Vaughan were also absent for unknown reasons.

The Dragons, despite their own lack of form having won just one in their previous 10 under new coach Joel Tomkins, initially exploited uncertainty in the home ranks.

Makinson took just four minutes to make his mark as he squeezed over on the left.

Warrington pulled level when they retained possession from a Marc Sneyd kick and thrillingly kept the ball alive for Zack Gardner to score from a looping George Williams pass.

Yet defensively, the hosts had little cohesion and Catalans cut them open three times in quick succession to open up a 22-6 lead.

Matthieu Laguerre touched down after breaking through weak challenges from Sneyd and Stefan Ratchford, and Makinson grabbed another after Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet had won a race to his own kick.

Boos then rang around the stadium as Makinson completed his 30-minute treble when he leapt to grab a Luke Keary kick and Aispuro-Bichet landed his third conversion.

Unfortunately for the visitors, Makinson was hurt in the scoring of that try and featured little in the remainder of the game.

Warrington rallied to cut the arrears to four points with tries either side of half-time.

Jake Thewlis burst away down the left to give them hope and Stone got on the scoresheet when he pounced on a Williams kick.

The momentum was now all with the Wolves but it was not until the 70th minute they broke through the Dragons' resilient defence again as Jake Thewlis produced a spectacular diving finish in the corner.

Sneyd's conversion from the touchline gave Warrington the lead for the first time on the night and Josh Thewlis picked up a loose ball to secure the points during a scrappy ending. Sneyd finished with his fifth goal of the night.

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